September 2014 saw the arrival of excellent news in Brandis town hall: the town beat 21 competitors to secure the title of Saxon Innovation Municipality. The goal of the state was to identify a Saxon municipality of at least 5,000 residents where numerous instruments of state modernisation would be introduced and used sustainably over a 3-year period.

The Saxon Innovation Municipality 2014 - 2016 project concerns the realisation of innovative projects, for which a budget totalling € 1 million is planned. This will involve numerous instruments of state modernisation being introduced or optimised and adopted for sustainable use. The intention here is to include cross-level administrative processes and improve the controllability of the innovation municipality, serve as a role model for other municipalities and define standards for the modernisation of state structures in direct interaction with municipal practice. The results will then be made available to other municipalities with the involvement of the innovation municipality.In the estimation of mayor Jesse, it was not only the presentation delivered by Brandis in Dresden that was decisive: "In addition to the professional presentation we also scored points with our holistic and structured approach, which followed an approach of stakeholding and operational excellence. We were also able to clarify the fact that the administration is willing and capable of acting as a single team in order to realise such a project, thereby becoming a pioneer for other Saxon municipalities."

The Saxon Innovation Municipality project is broken down into three modules: an obligatory module, a voluntary module and an own initiative module. As obligatory component a process management system is to be introduced and expanded in co-operation with the Free State of Saxony. In this the internal administration processes of the town of Brandis and cross-level administrative processes with the state are to be analysed and optimised where necessary. To achieve this the state has assigned PICTURE GmbH of Münster with the close monitoring of the internal administrative processes in the Brandis town council administration in the coming weeks and months. Picture GmbH will also support the entire Innovation Municipality process throughout the next two years or so.

Also introduced is a project to launch a civic information system (RIS). This will fully overhaul both the preparation and evaluation of meetings and the drafting of resolution or advisory templates. In addition, the entire public council and committee work will be provided to both the councillors and citizens in digital form. This will then be integrated into the homepage of the town of Brandis. The inclusion of further interfaces on the internet platform, such as Amt 24, an investment portal or the app for mobile reporting of defects and problems will be examined parallel to this.

With the introduction of a civic information system and the programming of a new homepage the sub-projects for the obligatory module are therefore already underway. Discussions are to be held with representatives of the state in the coming weeks regarding the sub-projects for the voluntary modules, such as the establishment of further modern civic services, such as the mobile citizens' case, the citizens' terminal or Behördennummer 115, a digital civic participation model and online registration of businesses.

Contributions are also required of citizens and political representatives. Because if, on their initiative, additional projects are created that serve the purpose of state modernisation, these projects can also be integrated into the overall portfolio of the Innovation Municipality as a voluntary module, on agreement. Discussions are to be held with all those involved before next spring.